08.16.09

While I certainly don’t begrudge anti-corporate crusader Phil Mushnick any opportunity to rip on PSLs and Giants Stadium, my guess is that today’s heavy breathing in the Post is factually suspect — the rantings of a man who’s never bought a ticket in his life, perhaps?

AMONG the desperate come-ons the PSL/NFL Jets are dangling to those who buy season tickets is this promise: “Exclusive opportunities for other stadium events.”

Really? How so? At a time when legislation is being fast-tracked to eliminate the insidious inside trading of tickets and ticket-buying opportunities to concerts held in New Jersey venues, what does “exclusive opportunities” mean?

Friday, we called the Jets to ask. Does “Exclusive opportunities for other stadium events” mean, for example, first crack at concert tickets?

“Yes,” the salesman replied. “That means you’ll be able to buy tickets during the pre-sale [before they go on sale to the public].”

In other words, what the Jets are promising in exchange for buying season tickets — first shot at concert tickets, tickets delivered from the inside for inside trade — is precisely what’s finally being acted against by New Jersey legislators and New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, who have joined to try to eliminate such malodorous enterprise.

Current law mandates that no event in the Meadowlands can withhold from the public more than five percent of tickets for general sale. And the BOSS Act, introduced in June and in part named after Bruce Springsteen, whose New Jersey concert tickets often land in professional scalpers’ and ticket-agency hands long before the public gets first or fair crack at them, is designed to further diminish or eliminate inside ticket distribution and the double-dealing that drives it.